Ironclaw

<p> Fast-paced exciting and informative with a realism and authenticity that this old carrier aviator has not seen in a long long time. -Admiral J. L. Holloway III USN (Ret.) Chief of Naval Operations 1974-78 </p><p> A fine Tom Clancy-style account...From the start the reader is in the cockpit.-Kirkus Reviews</p><p> The book that straps you into the cockpit of one of the world's most exhilarating and dangerous occupations. </p><p> Slammed back into his ejection seat catapulting from the heaving aircraft-carrier at 150 miles per hour in two seconds he plunges into the darkness above the black waves. He is a rookie pilot on his first flight off the deck of the famed USS Midway a nugget strapped in the electronics-crammed cockpit of one of the world's most expensive sophisticated - and powerful - military machines. He is a member of the elite EA-6B Prowler squadron - call sign Ironclaw. And for Sherman Baldwin a Yale grad turned navy carrier pilot on the eve of the Gulf War the adventure has just begun. </p><p> Here is the real world of military aviation - a world far more exciting than the depiction in bestselling novels and popular Hollywood films. Baldwin records in white-knuckled prose what it's really like to make the grade as a navy carrier pilot: the high-stakes high-pressure world of piloting multimillion-dollar aircraft precision flying through enemy fire over hostile territory and zero-tolerance aircraft landings in the dead of night when one miscalculation could result in a fatal crash. He also offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the humor and camaraderie that bind these special individuals together characters with nicknames like Beast Chief Rat and Simba. From the mission-planning room to chaotic action of the carrier deck to emergency midair refuelings and the outbreak of the Gulf War Baldwin captures the G forces of the world's steepest and most dangerous learning curve. </p>